Students at Flanner House, an Indianapolis charter school, face off in a high-speed game of spelling and vocabulary. Flanner House last year had one of the largest gains in their ISTEP scores in the state.
(Photo:
Star 2013 File Photo
)

2. I'm STILL wincing: Pacers' Paul George suffered a gruesome leg break in a USA Basketball scrimmage Friday night and, thankfully, underwent a successful surgery. As father Paul George Sr. said this weekend, it's almost certain the Indiana Pacers have lost All-Star forward Paul George for the season, says IndyStar's Nat Newell. He notes that of five NBA teams that lost their leading scorer to injury or free agency after posting a .660 winning percentage (roughly 55 wins) or better in the past 10 years, on average these teams only went on to win half as many games.

Indiana Pacers' Paul George is taken off the court after he was injured during the USA Basketball Showcase game Friday, Aug. 1, 2014, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) (Photo: John Locher AP)

Andre Drummond #25, DeMarcus Cousins #36 and Chandler Parsons #34 of the 2014 USA Basketball Men's National Team reacts after Paul George was badly injured defending a play in the fourth quarter of a USA Basketball showcase at the Thomas & Mack Center on August 1, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo: Ethan Miller Getty Images)

Team USA guard Paul George is carted off the floor on a gurney after suffering a lower leg injury during the USA Basketball Showcase at Thomas & Mack Center. (Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports)

Paul George #29 of the 2014 USA Basketball Men's National Team is tended to as he lies on the court after badly injuring his leg defending a play during a USA Basketball showcase at the Thomas & Mack Center on August 1, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The rest of the exhibition was cancelled after the injury. (Photo: Ethan Miller Getty Images)

Team USA basketball players clap as injured teammate Paul George is lifted on to a gurney after suffering a leg injury during the USA Basketball Showcase at Thomas Mack Center. (Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY S)

James Harden #32 of the 2014 USA Basketball Men's National Team reacts after Paul George #29 of the 2014 USA Basketball Men's National Team was injured while defending a layup by Harden during a USA Basketball showcase at the Thomas & Mack Center on August 1, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The rest of the exhibition was cancelled after the injury. (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Anthony Davis #42 and Kevin Durant #52 of the 2014 USA Basketball Men's National Team hug on the court after the game was called in the fourth quarter after an injury to Paul George during a USA Basketball showcase at the Thomas & Mack Center on August 1, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo: Ethan Miller Getty Images)

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski (C) and members of the 2014 USA Basketball Men's National Team huddle on the court after Krzyzewski told the crowd the exhibition was cancelled in the fourth quarter after an injury to Paul George during a USA Basketball showcase at the Thomas & Mack Center on August 1, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo: Ethan Miller Getty Images)

4. A second American stricken with the Ebola virus, Nancy Writebol, is expected to return to the USA on Tuesday, three days after IU grad Dr. Kent Brantly arrived a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Brantly "seems to be improving," Dr. Tom Frieden, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Sunday. Frieden has said his agency received "nasty" e-mails and at least 100 calls from people questioning why the sick aid workers should be let into the USA. Physicians are confident, however, that the two Americans can be treated without putting the public in danger.

In this undated photo released by the Center for Disease Control, a Aeromedical Biological Containment System which looks like a sealed isolation tent for Ebola air transportation is shown.
(Photo:
Associated Press
)

5. Here's a story that's had readers clucking. Brownsburg mom Sherri Frushon says her son Anthony's chickens help him with his autism, but she is worried they won't be able to keep the five hens they have had since May. The town does not allow chickens where the Frushons live unless owners have received approval. Todd Barker, Brownsburg's planning director, said Frushon should fill out appropriate paperwork, pay the required $600 fee, have neighbors give their OK and follow the other steps necessary to obtain a variance to have farm animals. Frushon said she doesn't think consent should be needed because the chickens are therapy animals.

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Sherri Frushon said keeping chickens has helped her son Anthony, who has autism, be calmer and more social.
(Photo:
Rob Goebel/The Star
)

9. "Best show I've seen this year." High praise indeed from IndyStar's David Lindquist about Keith Urban's concert at Klipsch Music Center on Saturday! Lindquist says the country music superstar stands on top of the mountain among active guitarists, jockeying for position with Prince and Phish's Trey Anastasio and that the evening "resembled a Springsteen show from the 1970s or a U2 show from the '80s." I'll be giving Urban's music another listen and keeping an eye out for his next convenient concert date.

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10. Beyonce has appeared to have made her first public comments about the May fight caught by elevator cameras between hubby Jay Z and sis Solange in a new remix of "Flawless," which dropped this weekend and features Nicki Minaj. "We escalate, up in this (expletive) like elevators. Of course sometimes (expletive) goes down when it's a billion dollars on an elevator." So whatever they were fighting over was worth a billion dollars?

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